Holiday blues is common during the last two months of the year.
It’s the time of year where it’s easy to get lazy….
And, it’s a time where we can start to coast… crave more winter hibernation sleep and rest… and sometimes with a difficult year, get into our “let’s just get through the year” mantra.
It’s so easy to get caught up in holiday blues and sad emotions for what we don’t have and any losses we faced. Those situational feelings can turn into emotional unrest, where we end up blaming or hurting others or beating ourselves up.
And all this can be bittersweet because it’s also a seasonal time of renewal. And a time of holiday celebration. So we can oscillate between mixed emotions that we’re still processing…
BUT so, for your healthy breakthrough and escape from the stressors, do something productive instead.
Start with patting yourself on the back for something small and good you just did earlier today. Get that little stretch in to ease up the mood.
And if you just woke up… Congratulations, you are a new day wiser with possibilities.
While rest and relaxation is healthy to do and natural to catch up on, what if we did just a hair more with our lazy bones side where we want to lay around and do nothing or watch Neflix all day in our jammies (…we all have some Kapha in us afterall)?
What if instead to recharge the mind-body and get out of any funks, you re-channeled your energy into a NEW holiday purpose that becomes a new tradition?
That’s what creativity is. Creative energy comes from within. It’s tapping into the loving energy you have and not what you don’t have. Our ego love to focus on the negative. And the undesired behaviors show up as pity parties, Impostor Syndrome, or hurting others.
And if negative is how you deeply feel because your thoughts have been feeding you negatively, then that’s when it’s good to refocus on self-awareness in this moment. Get a handle on picking yourself back up. You can start with focusing on your inhale/exhale breath.
But another good way to get out of holiday blues is to bring back fond happy memories!…
Remember in your recent joy moments or past fun years when you came up with all kinds of resourceful activities? You baked cookies, danced around, and played games and outside in the snow. 🤸🏻
The younger-you was inventive with the resources you had. And that probably didn’t cost money or much as you used your creativity.
And today as an adult, you can remind yourself of those memories, and in that spirit do so much more with yourself because you’re not as limited.
At the least, you can make decisions you couldn’t as a kid.
And you’re years wiser than you once were. In wisdom, you want to grow. And that can mean being more than a life watcher. You can be an active participant in your activities.
You can participate in your interests in a meaningful way in your life. You can create more impact and find your purpose in this life that’s inside you.
So – what do you have interest in learning more about?
And if you can’t come up with anything if you’re feeling uninspired…
Do something outside to change up your surroundings.
Too cold outside? Perfect time to have a peppermint marshmallow fun hot cocoa beverage. Stick a peppermint stick in your drink and dress up the rim.
You could also sign up to be a holiday volunteer. Holidays have so many great once-a-year happenings that are healthy to do.
And if you’re wanderlust for snowy effects, watch a Christmas movie to get into the snow globe holiday cheer. And let that be a happy recent memory for you. ⛄️
Play Christmas songs or festive music. String up lights or some popcorn and cranberries (left over from Thanksgiving that’s a fun treat). All so you can get your holly-jolly on without a lot of effort.
And then after you get in your better joyful mood, you can start doing the activity that makes your heart sing. …Maybe it’s singing? …Maybe it’s working with your hands with something arts and crafts? 🎤🧶
Start a creative project and let that swallow up the anxious or lazy moods.
Just know that whatever you enjoy, not everyone else does. So that makes you a different snowflake. ❄️ You can show off your creativity and skills to your friends and fam and let them have some enjoyment of your talent.
Creativity could be what you’re missing in life… it’s a form of purpose. And it’s a gift that can get lost if you haven’t used it in a while. I know this too well because I didn’t know I had hidden talents until I started participating after holding onto lesser work-created moods.
And that can be just what you need…
Purpose and creativity brings passion (the opposite of boredom) to life!
When you start giving more of yourself in a way that makes you giddy, by default you’re fully feeling less moody blues. You have a purpose to get up beyond the daily hum-drum have-to-do’s.
And when your heart sings, you’re free from the rocky roller coaster wheel of emotions you once were feeling because then you substitute fleshly feelings for deeper content feelings.
Contentment is on another wave frequency than situational happiness. And if you’re not content watching or hanging out on the sidelines, at some point your ego will point out to you loudly that you’re not in your game. And most likely then you feel off in a funk mood or not aligned in what you’re doing and how you feel.
And that can often lead to unhealthy ways such as staying on the never-ending emotional roller coaster.
This is where excitement is high through the build up to the peak, and then it’s downhill toward rock bottom which is where boredom is. 🎢 You want to escape and dodge that way.
Because to pick up the lows, often costs something high… resulting in sadness, overeating, or our self-control when we’ve been trying to improve our discipline. And then that’s a point where our dangerous ego can attack us if we feel self-defeated taking two steps forward and one step back.
So my friendly advice and encouragement if you feel holiday blues this season is to get back to your healthy self first… maybe detox from what’s not aligned. And that will set you up for a much better end of year to springboard you into next year! 📈